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A jam submission

Blobs. Together. Strong.View game page

Submission to Brackeys Game Jam 2021.1
Submitted by Shinado — 1 day, 18 hours before the deadline
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Blobs. Together. Strong.'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Theme#1683.9633.963
Graphics#4423.5193.519
Game Design#5463.2593.259
Overall#5513.2353.235
Fun#6153.1483.148
Innovation#7292.9632.963
Audio#9312.5562.556

Ranked from 27 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

In what way does your game fit the theme?
The player blob needs to fuse together with other blobs in order to complete puzzles. Fusing makes the blob stronger so that they can push heavy boxes around and then... FREEEEEEEDOM!!!!

Did you write all the code yourself and made all the assets from scratch?
Yes

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

The game was fun and had solid puzzle elements. The in world how to gameplay clues were nice but sometimes a little cryptic to understand. And also there was a single troll area of the game which felt a little unfair especially since there were no other troll elements to the game. So this wasn't consistent. The graphics were decent and the gameplay was solid.

Streamed here:

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for the feedback :D

The game did break at level 4, there was one more level and then an end screen, not sure why it happened, others seemed to easily proceed to the next level. Maybe you can try the downloadable version as the web version might not work properly sometimes. The last level (which didn't load during the stream) has the die-to-respawn mechanic from the cage level as its solution so it was important to introduce it (though I admit I added the 'R to Respawn' message to throw off some players so it was a little unfair). Sorry for the late reply, I am glad you liked the game :)

Submitted(+1)

Great game! Nice puzzles and good level design. I liked the core mechanics they really fit the theme well. Visuals were simple, yet clean. And all the tiles snapped together! (Thanks for helping me fix that on my game btw <3) Good job!!!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Nice and fun puzzle game. The fuse and split mechanics were very clever. I liked the way you incorporated the instructions into the game although I found some of the instructions that were just drawings a little hard to understand. Also the music was a bit repetitive hehe Very nice job though!

Submitted(+1)

The platforming feels great! I don't know if you made it so you can walljump, but you can.

I got stuck on level 3 where you need to push the button and it tells you to restart. 

But, it was a nice game.

Well done!

Developer(+1)

Glad you liked the game :D

The walljump was unintended and I will remove it in the post-jam version.


Spoiler (Solution for Level 3) -> Once you press the button, you have to jump in the spikes to 'respawn' ...  Pressing 'resets' the level. I added the 'R to Restart' instruction just to confuse some players. The 'respawn' (not to be confused with the 'reset') mechanic is also used later in the game.

Thanks for the feedback!

Submitted(+1)

I liked it a lot! It has a nice pixel art style and color scheme, and the controls felt responsive. The merging/splitting mechanic was also pretty creative.

There were some inconsistencies, however. I believe the comment by HauntedQuest summarizes them pretty well, but I found another thing and  I don't know whether it was intentional or not. I realized that if you jump, separate and then merge again mid-air you essentially have infinite jumps. This led to me solve the levels in a way that was probably not intended (this would be a pretty cool mechanic though if you designed levels around it). The smoothing factor on the camera follow script was also a bit too high in my opinion. It was sometimes difficult to see what was ahead because the camera couldn't keep up with the player, especially when falling.

I played in the browser version first (without audio  in other words) and decided to try the download version when I'd gotten as far as I could. Just so that I could give a fair rating in the Audio category. My biggest criticism is that there are a lot of repeating audio clips without variation (I got this criticism on my game as well in regards to the typing sounds :P),  such as the music only being about 2 bars long and the jumping sfx being the same every time. Something to consider might be to use different audio clips between the first jump and the double jump? Just for some variation.

With some more attention and fixes I believe it could turn out really nicely. Most games aren't made in a week after all, and this was a really solid entry. I hope you continue after the ratings are over! :)

Developer(+1)

Glad you liked the game!

The jump-split-fuse-jump mechanic is intentional and it is the solution for the elevator level (you can find the instructions for it in a hidden area on the top floor of the elevator level).

I plan on adding more advanced camera controller in the post-jam version which would have a 'deadzone' meaning the camera will keep the player within certain bounds at all times and smoothly follow it when it is in the 'safezone' ... This should hopefully solve the issue with the camera.

I am planning on collabing after the jam for the music as I am not so good at making music. We will have multiple longer music tracks and various SFX in the post-jam version :)

I am planning to work on the game after the ratings are over but it will be only the bug fixes, new music/sfx and maybe a few more levels.

Thanks for the feedback :D

Submitted(+1)

I really like the concept and the visuals nicely fit the type of game you're making. I had some minor issues with controls, level design and collisions, though. At times, it isn't quite clear where you can and cannot go (especially higher platforms, I managed to beat the elevator level by skipping the elevator altogether, not sure whether it was intended that way). I think you really needed to teach the player about the double and wall jump and make those abilities a little clearer. The restart mechanic, I found a little confusing as well (I expected it to be just a way of resetting the level if you put yourself into a corner, not something that's required to complete some levels). There were also some issues with inconsistent collision where I sometimes would and wouldn't fit into a tight hallway and got stuck on seemingly nothing (when passing between platform and elevator). I think it may be due to inconsistent floating point calculation, maybe just leave a little more space here and there so you don't get to a point where those tiny differences matter.

But these are just minor issues and this definitely has the potential to be turned into something more if you wish to do so (adding different types of blobs to fuse with that give you more abilities would also be an interesting approach). Good job!

Developer

The elevator level does seem to have some bug and I will look into it after the jam is over :)

The restart and the respawn mechanic are different in this game. You can restart with R which resets the whole level whereas the respawn mechanic simple respawns the player blob to the spawn point... I was planning to make more levels utilising this mechanic but couldn't do so because of the time limit. Now that I think of it after submission, the respawn mechanic does seem a little weird so I will try and experiment with it later to see how it fits the game.
Some levels (especially the staircase one) are intended to be beaten in a way where you fit into tight hallways by fusing inside it although the squash/stretch animations make the collisions a bit inconsistent.

Thanks for the feedback :D

Submitted(+1)

I had fun playing this submission! The graphics were nice and clean, and the puzzles were interesting enough to hold my attention without being impossibly difficult!

My critique: After a short while, the music got quite frustrating to listen to, since it seemed to only be about a 2 second long loop, and many of the features (double jump, jump-split-fuse-jump), were not explained and I had to come back to this comment section to try and find out what I was missing. It felt a little bit, especially on the elevator level but on others too, that I was having to break the game and exploit bugs to try and solve the puzzle, although, from what I've read, I was actually doing the right thing.

My overall verdict is that there are aspects that need some work, but once those are improved and the instructions are made a little more clear, you've got a solid puzzle platformer here with a lot of potential! And spot on with the theme too! :D

Developer

Glad you liked the game!

I am not too good with the music side of things so I could only make a 2 second loopable track. I could've collabed with someone in the jam, I will make sure not to make the same mistake in the next jam :)

The jump-split-fuse-jump manuever is explained vaguely in a hidden area on the elevator level although I did forget to explain the double jump to the player.

Thanks for the feedback :D

Submitted(+1)

Overall a nice game!

Puzzles well thought-out. However, I got stuck on the Elevator Level, had no clue what to do once I got the little guy over the wall to the right, with spike on the end.

What I didn't like:

  • Controls were a little unclear, like I didn't know you could double jump, and wall jump until I tried it out
  • Some level design was unfinished, you could fall down and there would be something keeping character alive outside camera view

What I liked:

  • Theme connection was spot on
  • Puzzles were fun to figure out
  • The art style was nice

Definitely, something that can be polished up and continued to be worked on to release!

Nice job.

Developer

Glad you liked the game!

wall jump was an unintended feature (but I forgot to remove it!). The puzzles can be solved without having to wall jump.
I definitely should've made it clear that the player can double jump, thanks for pointing it out!
You can use 'R' to restart the level if something goes wrong, like when you fall down the level. 

Spoiler (solution of the elevator level) -> Once you get the player over the wall, you can quickly seperate and then fuse (S and then F) before the player touches the spikes, that way you will be fused but still fit in the hole and respawn after touching the spikes. You can then use the fused blob to push the box and finish the level.

Submitted(+1)

A really fun concept that is explored well with the level design, great game

Submitted(+1)

Wow! It's a great game with a lot of potential. Are you going to continue this game after the game jam?

btw can you check my game too

Submitted(+1)

You've nailed the theme, so well done on that. The platforming movement also feels great to handle and I like that intentionally dying is a strategy for certain rooms. The graphics are also really cute and tie the overall setting of the game pretty well.

I think that the instructions on the wall could be clarified better, sometimes it's not very clear what they're telling you. I'd choose a text color that contrasts more with the background and add more words or letters. The level with the rising platform also had its instructions hidden behind a secret entrance, which took me a while to find. I think that when you introduce new mechanics to the player, you should make them as obvious as possible so that the player doesn't get frustrated trying to figure out what to do.

Great work on the game, I enjoyed playing through it.

Developer (1 edit)

Glad you liked the game!

I think I will have to add a few levels in between to introduce the mechanics and let the difficulty level rise slowly rather than in an instant. I intentionally made the instructions hard to understand (especially the hidden instructions on the last level) but I think I could remove the scratches on a few to clarify them further.

Thanks for the feedback :D

Submitted(+1)

Rally great graphics and the controls are fluid. Really liked that touching wall replanishes jump.

Submitted(+1)

I enjoyed the game but found if you jumped while close enough to spikes you could just get an extra jump (3rd) and be fine. I was also a bit confused about some of the hieroglyphs but the game overall had very good level design and loved it!

Developer

Glad you liked the game!

Some of the hieroglyphs (especially the one on the last level) are intentionally made difficult to understand but I think others turned out harder because of low resolution and the scratch marks

Submitted(+1)

Great game i really liked the puzzles even tho they aren't a lot of them, but i can see this game go as far as a steam game if more levels added,


oh & please please check my game & give me some feedback ):

Submitted(+1)

Reject monster return to blob!

Funny game! Fun as well

Oh and please check out my game as well :)

Submitted(+1)

Very fun to play

Submitted(+1)

cool game! i like the way you worked with the theme! didn't really understand the mechanics but it's still pretty fun! would love if you could try out my game too https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-5/rate/929542

Submitted(+1)

Fun, simple and good art.